ANATG 2015 Batch teachers during the protest at Naga Solidarity Park, Kohima on September 26, 2022. (Morung file Photo)
Vows ‘stringent action’ until matter is resolved
Kohima, January 27 (MExN): The Core Committee of the All Nagaland Adhoc Teachers’ Group (ANATG)-2015 Batch, appointed between 1994 and 2012, on Tuesday held an emergency meeting to deliberate on its ultimatum to the state government demanding service regularisation.
The ultimatum was served to the Commissioner & Secretary of School Education & SCERT on January 7 and is set to expire on January 30, the committee Convenor, Temsuchiba Aier and Secretary, Lhovito Shiqi said in a press release.
The meeting held at CANSSEA hall, Kohima on January 27, attended by representatives from all 14 units across 17 districts, decided that failure by the government to meet their demand within the stipulated timeframe will lead to mobilisation of members in Kohima for “democratic form of resentment.”
The committee termed this proposed agitation as the “group’s last and final stand.”
It has directed all members to “concede to the call for the protest, failing which penalties shall be imposed.”
The committee also resolved to strengthen respective units in view of for the proposed agitation “on the event of the Government’s failure to fulfill the group’s demand.”
Ultimatum to state government
The ANATG-2015 Batch had issued its ultimatum to the state government on January 7 last, demanding the long-pending regularisation of its 1166 members by January 30, failing which it has cautioned to undertake its “most stringent course of action.”
The ultimatum was submitted by the ANATG Core Committee, comprising district unit executives from all 17 districts, to the Commissioner & Secretary of School Education and SCERT, who is also the Member Secretary of the High Powered Committee (HPC) 2022.
In the ultimatum routed through the Principal Director of School Education Department, the teacher’s body recounted a decade-long struggle for service regularisation. The ANATG 2015 Batch comprises Primary, Graduate, Language, Hindi, Art teachers and Carpentry instructor, appointed between 1994 and December 2012 against state-sanctioned posts.
The committee highlighted that the teachers appeared for a written test, interviews, and document verification in 2017 for service regularization. The same was advertised by the Department of School Education on May 2, 2017, it added.
It reminded that ‘due to delays in processing the regularization,’ the ANATG held a democratic sit-in protest at the Directorate of School Education in Kohima in 2018 demanding service regularization.
For years, they were paid a meagre fixed pay of Rs 6700 for Primary and Rs 8260 for Graduate teachers. Instead of regularisation, the government then granted them the 6th ROP (Revised Pay) through an order in November 2018.
The impasse continued, leading the All Nagaland School Teachers’ Association (ANSTA), the parental body, to serve an ultimatum to the department in June 2022. Upon its expiry, the ANATG, under ANSTA’s aegis, resumed agitation from September 26 to October 7, 2022, which “intensified” to a hunger strike for over a week at the Nagaland Civil Secretariat.
This agitation was suspended on October 7, 2022, after the signing of an agreement with the government, represented by senior officials including the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and the Commissioner & Secretary of School Education. The HPC Agreement 2022 solemnly resolved to constitute a High Powered Committee within 15 days, which would submit its recommendations by June 2023, and thereafter take up the issue to resolve the matter of ANATG-2015 Batch within December 2023.
Due to “breach of HPC committed by the department,” the ANATG along with the ANSTA and the signatories of the HPC Agreement 2022, had submitted numerous representation to the Commissioner & Secretary; SE & SCERT, requesting the department to expedite the regularisation process of the ANATG in line with the HPC Agreement 2022.
Additionally, it stated that the HPC 2022 was constituted due to their hunger strike and sacrifices, which subsequently led to the introduction of Office Memorandum (OM) 2024. This OM created a one-time regularisation policy for all ad hoc employees under the Nagaland government.
“However, while the processing of the Adhoc employees of other department seems to have fast tracked, the regularisation process of the ANATG remains stagnated even after three years of signing the HPC Agreement 2022,” the ultimatum stated. It added that the Core Committee feels they are “being made a SCAPEGOAT to fulfill the hidden agendas best known to the system.”
Asserting that they are left with no other options, the ANATG Core Committee has placed this as its “last and final ultimatum,” demanding service regularisation by January 30.
“On failure to address the matter as stated, the Core Committee ANATG shall undertake its most stringent course of action till the matter is resolved and for which the ANATG as a whole is ready and willing to stage the ultimate act,” it concluded.
